Picture from Sasin Tipchai


     Vaccine cannot be made for every disease but medicines can treat and cure many diseases. Antibiotics harm bacteria. They were discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming (1881-1955). Fleming noticed mould growing in a dish he was using to grow bacteria. He observed that the bacteria did not grow near the mould. 

Fleming came up with a theory that the mould produced a chemical that harmed the bacteria. He was right. Howard Florey (1898-1968) and Ernst Chain (1906-1979) purified the substance and made the first antibiotic medicine-penicillin. 

Different antibiotics harm different bacteria. Some antibiotics are made by chemically altering penicillin to make it kill different bacteria. One of these antibiotics is methicillin. Bacteria that are not harmed by an antibiotic are resistant. MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Scientists are trying to develop new antibiotics to kill this bacterium. Antibiotic do not work on viruses. Other medicines are used to ease the symptoms of viral diseases (E.g. Aspirin reduces your temperature).